Supporters of Mukul Roy, Trinamool Congress general secretary and former railway minister, on Sunday allegedly damaged a podium on the eve of a railway programme near Roy’s hometown in North 24 Parganas. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress leader and Minister of State for Railways, is expected to preside over the programme.

Adhir is scheduled to arrive at 11 am to inaugurate the event celebrating 150 years of Kanchrapara Railway Workshop at the Bell Institute premises near Kanchrapara. The programme had been planned when Roy was the railway minister, and it was Roy who was supposed to inaugurate the programme. Roy also has a long association with the locality — his ancestral house is at Kanchrapara and his father was an employee at the workshop.

According to railway sources, the authorities had erected a dais, concrete welcome arch and cutouts of Adhir at the venue. TMC supporters allegedly damaged the structures and threatened the workers of railway contractors engaged in erecting the podium. RPF jawans were deployed to control the situation.